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Fruita soon to open two new parks

Greg Mazu, president of Singletrack Trails, uses a Ditch Witch to move dirt at the construction site of Fruita’s new mountain-bike park. The park is to be completed in time for the Fruita Fat Tire Festival, which starts Thursday.

QUICKREAD

Name Fruita’s new park

The city is asking residents to help name the nearly completed mountain-bike park at the entrance to the Red Cliffs Mobile Home Village.

Fruita officials say people who submit names should provide background information and documentation as to why the park should be named after their suggestion.

Names submitted should fall in line with geographic names describing the location or natural features near the park, historic names or events related to the park, an organization or person who made a significant contribution to the park or a person who made a significant contribution to the city over a period of time.

Suggestions may be emailed to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or dropped off at the Fruita Community Center, 324 N. Coulson St., by 5 p.m. May 4.

For information about the bike park or the naming process, call Fruita Parks and Recreation Director Ture Nycum at 970-858-0360.

By {screen_name}
Monday, April 25, 2011

Fruita will soon open two new parks at the south end of the city, offering a place to play for mountain bikers who have had to go elsewhere in the Grand Valley to get their single-track fix.

City officials expect to spend just shy of $194,000 to build a 2.4-acre mountain-bike park at the entrance to the Red Cliffs Mobile Home Village and an 18-hole disc golf course on 35 acres between Colorado Highway 340 and the Kings View subdivision.

City Council members last week agreed to transfer $38,000 from the city’s economic development fund to its capital-projects fund to cover the balance of the parks’ cost.

The bike park will feature beginner and advanced pump tracks, a dirt-jumps area, a skills trail around the perimeter and pedestrian paths around the park, according to Fruita Parks and Recreation Director Ture Nycum.

Volunteers with the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association helped build some of the trails and other park features.

The park will open in time for the Fruita Fat Tire Festival, which begins Thursday.

“We’re known for our mountain biking, but you have to go outside of town to do it,” Nycum said. “People will have a place to ride close by to practice their mountain biking skills.”

The city later will add a shelter and grass at the park, but the cost and completion date haven’t been determined.

The mountain-bike park originally was scheduled to be paired with the disc golf course at the recently named Fruita Riverfront Park on the south side of the Colorado River, but the City Council chose instead to move it to the north side of the river and across Colorado Highway 340.

The disc golf course should be completed by the end of July, allowing a portion of a state tournament to be played there this fall, Nycum said.

City leaders have been working toward the establishment of the parks since the city’s Parks, Open Space and Trails Master Plan identified the south part of the city as being underserved by parks.